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Terminal Velocity



 
 
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  #11  
Old March 16th 11, 05:12 PM posted to sci.space.tech
Jim Davis
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Default Terminal Velocity

Niobium wrote:

As the feather hits the mesosphere or wherever, it starts to hit
air molecules, it slows while the
pellet with low surface area keeps falling until it is hitting
much denser air and it burns up
in re-entry like a meteorite.


You seem to be under the mistaken impression that reentering objects
aren't subjected to high heating until they encounter much denser
air. This is not the case; most of the heating occurs at very high
altitudes.

A feather reentering from orbit will never reach the ground. It's
kinetic energy has to go somewhere. The feather does work on the air
which gets very hot which in turn heats the feather, destroying it,
at a higher altitude than your steel pellet.

Jim Davis

  #12  
Old December 10th 12, 06:23 PM
props props is offline
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Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Davis View Post
A feather reentering from orbit will never reach the ground. It's
kinetic energy has to go somewhere. The feather does work on the air
which gets very hot which in turn heats the feather, destroying it,
at a higher altitude than your steel pellet.

Jim Davis
Interesting forum, everyone. Reading this thread, I wondered if some sort of propellor system would be of any use in converting the work done by a re-entry capsule into mechanical motion, and in that way dissipate the energy? Maybe something like a spinning heat shield?
 




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